1994 Buick Skylark from North America

Summary:

Faults:

I got the car with 65,730 miles. The back seat has a burn mark from a cigarette, but otherwise nice interior and exterior.

By 68,000 miles, the AC compressor and receiver went.

One of the belts disintegrated in the mechanic's hand around 70,000 miles.

There's a rattle in the dashboard. I was told that it was a pencil someone stuck behind the glove compartment years before I had the car, (the glove compartment was replaced years ago). The pencil is out, but the rattle is the plastic hinges on the glove compartment.

By 75,000 miles, the check engine light would come on when accelerated to or above 40 mph. Dealership claimed that there was nothing wrong with the car, (this problem happened twice in less than a year).

The bright lights stopped working at 75,000 miles. The mechanic broke the vanity ring on the steering column while fixing this problem, then claimed it wasn't their fault.

During repair, the dealership also broke two of the knobs for the heater/ac unit. One of them had to be replaced, (the other one is able to be used, but is slightly off).

Automatic window motors have gone one after the other in the driver's door, the front passenger's door, and soon in the rear window on the passenger side.

There's a plastic cover under the hood that is cracked.

O2 sensor was replaced at 100,337 miles and the same problem is still going on. The car engine light comes on and stays on, (which it wasn't doing before the last repair). After a while the car starts hesitating to move when accelerator is pressed. Within minutes, the car stalls out.

Also, some other costly repairs have been made.

General Comments:

This car is decent overall, but expensive to repair. Also, the mechanics have a hard time understanding the difference between the skylark and skyhawk of the same year.

7th May 2005, 20:59

I have a 1996 Buick Skylark with 102,000 miles on it. I am the original owner and have kept up with the maintenance and the necessary tuneups on the car. It has been a great car. In the past three years I have had to replace the rear brakes and the catalytic converter. A couple of years ago, I replaced the motor to one of the back rear windows and the heater core. Right now I am having problems with the car starting. It does not matter whether the car is warmed up or cold, the engine light is not on, and I believe it is an electrical problem.